Kalank - Film Review

Arijit Singh’s haunting title track is probably about the best thing in this movie. That and maybe the visually gorgeous trailer that reflects the beautifully elaborate and extravagant sets. But, last I checked, a movie needs a little bit more to really make the cut. 

The good news. It’s great to see that Bollywood is struggling to make a big budget, big sets, big star cast blockbuster (Remember Thugs of Hindostan!). And is actually succeeding in making smaller, deeper, more meaningful cinema. Only very recently, it was exactly the opposite. Just for that, it’s rewarding to see #Kalank fail spectacularly. 

The story, set just before Independence, revolves around Roop (Alia) who, after a completely and convolutedly unconvincing ‘majboori’ gets married to Dev (Aditya Roy Kapur) as his second wife. This is Satya’s idea (Sonakshi), who as the dying first wife, wants to leave behind Roop as a backup wife, because, how can the husband be without a wife even for a single day. What if he needs a cup of tea the day after the wife is dead! That becomes the base for a marriage without love (but with respect apparently, as Dev tells Roop). Moving to a new city, Husnabad (in today’s Pakistan), the young and restless Roop rebels to learn music from the friendly-neighbourhood tawaiif, Bahaar Begum (guess who!). The kotha, located in the infamous Hira Mandi, becomes the site, where she meets street boy, blacksmith Zafar (Varun Dhawan) and falls in love with his in-your-face-and-in-my-abs-I’m-a-bastard-and-I-know-it personality. Love is in the air amidst the randomly beautiful holi colours. Love is in the street as she is also a reporter for the politically-charged local newspaper, run by her politically charged husband Dev. Love is also, in the totally irrelevant bullfight between Varun and, well, the bull. Tired already? Wait, there’s 2 more hours to go. The plot then intertwines Zafar’s back-revenge-hate-story, with the rising communal unrest before Partition, creating an inconsequential saga of unconvincing hate-love-hate-love between Roop and Zafar, between Zafar and Dev, between Bahaar Begum and Balraj Chaudhry (Sanjay Dutt) and even between Zafar and best friend-turned-foe Abdul Khan (Kunal Khemu), leading to the final climax with a confusing message of kalank vs. love. And you’re left wondering. Is that what it was all about? Huh! 

Abhishek Varman, Really? Is this the kind of movie you’re making in 2019? We know your earlier hit 2 States wasn’t exactly a piece of art, but given its source book, at least it was a fairly simple enjoyable modern day young love story. Kalank is neither simple nor enjoyable and as far away from modern as it can possibly be. 

The movie felt it was Karan Johar and Abhishek Varman trying to do a Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The grand sets, the colours, the larger-than-life scenes, game-of-thrones inspired Hira Mandi street, the very Devdaas setting of Madhuri and her mannerisms and her kotha, and a ‘dola re dola’ type sequence between Madhuri and Alia. Even Alia’s ‘natkhat’ kite-flying introduction scene was reminiscent of Aishwarya Rai’s ‘man mohini’ introduction in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. But, if anything Kalank shows that only Bhansali can do a Bhansali. Kalank was like a wanna-be Bhansali movie, that had the beautifully grand sets but lacked the taste, that had the actors but not the performances, that had the ambition but not the conviction, that had the money but not the story, that had the vision, but not the craft. 

What a pity to have all of this and not put it to good use. In that sense, a more appropriate word for the movie would be not kalank but “klaant”, which means wasted or jaded. The film is wasted in not being able to tap the potential of the stellar cast who have a proven track record of good performances. The film is wasted in not being able to translate the magnificence of the sets into a gripping visual narrative. The film is wasted in not being able to find meaning in a moment of Indian history that, by definition, is so filled with emotions and meaning.

A movie that has Varun and Alia as the central characters, but doesn’t have the one thing that is guaranteed in a movie with them - their chemistry. A movie that has one of the best (kathak) dancers in Bollywood, Madhuri, but not one properly choreographed kathak number. A movie where Alia is playing a character that she herself is not convinced about. A movie where Varun plays a poor street boy, but you feel nothing for him. A movie where you could leverage an old flame between Sanjay and Madhuri, but only translates into one cold (almost boring) scene towards the end. And, as a die-hard Madhuri fan, I have to say this. C’mon guys, do you honestly think this is all that Madhuri can do - an aged tawaiif! She played Chandramukhi once beautifully, agreed! But have you not seen Dil, Beta, Lajja, Hum Aapke Hai Koun, Tezaab, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Ram Lakhan, Mrityudand, 100 days, and many more.

Sigh!

When, at the end of the movie, Roop looks at the screen and asks the audience ‘what did you see in this movie kalank or love’, you can’t help but wonder that that is not really the right question at all. The right question is ‘why did we come to watch this movie?’ Because the only kalank at the end of the really long 2 hours 48 mins and 13.9 seconds! was the movie itself. A kalank on the Hindi film industry of 2019, that is, otherwise, making such exciting and modern day films.